


A Knight and a Peasant Girl

by ossriccchau



Series: Merlin Stories and Such [5]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, Exactly What It Says on the Tin, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gaius is helpful, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Sorry, Leon is in love, Leon is protective, Leon would die for the reader, M/M, POV Alternating, Pining Leon, reader is anxious, very messy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:07:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23450701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ossriccchau/pseuds/ossriccchau
Summary: You honestly hadn't anticipated healing a Knight of Camelot, especially when you resented knights for what had happened to your brother and father, yet here you were, wrapping Sir Leon's wounds, and finding him attractive.Honestly, why couldn't the Great Dragon just be happy with his release from underneath the castle, and fuck off, and not try to kill the entire Kingdom of Camelot? Dramatics, thats why.
Relationships: Gwaine/Percival (Merlin), Leon/Reader, Leon/Reader (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Merlin Stories and Such [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1696675
Kudos: 22





	A Knight and a Peasant Girl

**Author's Note:**

> i dont know what this is

It was the third day of the Great Dragon’s attack on Camelot, the knights were tired, and so many of them had fallen in battle. You were trying to get back to your small home, sadly, you stepped over the bodies of those who had died in the battle, including knights and common people. You carried your small water jug, hoping that it would be enough to sustain you for a couple of days, or until the battle was over so that you wouldn’t have to venture outside again.

You hardly had anything in the name of money, you were penniless, your father and brother had both been slain defending the life of one Arthur Pendragon, and you had never known your mother, so all the money that you had left had come from what your brother and father had left behind, which honestly wasn’t much, but you were trying to stretch the money out as far as possible.

Just as you were about to reach your door, you heard a small groan amongst all the chaos of the fight. You turned your head, and saw that it was one of the knights, you weren’t sure which knight it was, but you knew that you should probably help them. You had always been good at healing, and always helped out when you could. You pondered for a second, should you go and get Gaius? You quickly shook your head at yourself, Gaius was already swamped enough with those that were injured, and you didn’t need to add to his burden.

You walked over to the man, quickly placing your water jug down beside you. You shook his shoulder, “Sir?” You questioned softly, it had been awhile since you had used your voice, you had basically been rendered mute when the remaining members of your family had passed on. He groaned again, “Can you stand? I-I can bring you to my house, and help with your injuries,” You offered, getting him in a sitting up position. He nodded, “Thank you,” His voice was hoarse, but also nice to listen to. You shook that thought off, you needed to help him, not compliment him on his voice.

With your help, he slowly stood, leaning heavily on you for support. You didn’t mind the extra weight, your brother often would dump all his weight on you, even when he had the smallest injury, because he knew that his dramatic antics would always bring a smile to your face. You slowly hobbled, with the nameless knight against you, to your small hut. You brought him inside, and slowly pushed him into one of the chairs. “Here, I need to clear of the table, and get that armour off of you.” You said, and quickly dashed over to your kitchen table, to clean it off. There wasn’t all that much stuff on it, so it didn’t take long at all. While you were doing that, the knight had begun to strip himself of his chainmail, he let out a long groan and you winced.

You walked over to him and began to help him remove the chainmail, once that was off, “I’m really sorry, I can’t get your tunic off without disturbing your wounds even more, can I cut it?” You questioned, already moving to grab a small knife, “Yes, do what you have to, thank you again,” He said, you smiled at him and began to slice through his tunic, carefully removing it from his cuts, you were always told that distracting a patient was a good idea, to distract them from the pain that they were in, so you started a small conversation.

“What’s your name?” You questioned, stripping the tunic off of him. “Leon, Sir Leon,” He said, “Yours?” He asked in reply, “(Y/N).” You replied softly and got to work on his multiple wounds. “I’m not sure how many times I will thank you, (Y/N), but I’ll probably do it a lot.” Leon said. He took his time to look at you, as you began to work on his wounds. You were beautiful, truly, your eyes were bright, but seemed to hide a lot of sadness behind them. He then took the time to look around your small hut, there was hardly anything to it. It was one large room, but it was hardly large, your bed was in the corner and it was tiny, there was a small kitchen just to the right of the main door, and then a small rack that seemed to only have three dresses on it, and then a small cupboard that was closed, and he couldn’t really tell what was inside. It was small, and he began to wonder if you lived alone, or if you were married and they had perished in the battle.

You smiled, “You don’t have to thank me, I’m a nobody, you’re a knight, I should be thanking you.” You declared; he shook his head. “Which brings me to my next point. There are jokes among the commoners that you are invincible, why are you testing that theory?” You questioned him, as you prepared some bandages and ointments. He laughed at that, it was loud and boisterous, and he had a beautiful smile. “I test it because I must. I am loyal to the king and to the prince,” He said, staring you in the eyes, yet your eyes seemed to get even more sad at mention of the prince, but you quickly hid it. “Then, lets hope your invincibility seems to last. Give me a second, I have to go get that water jug that I left outside,” You muttered.

He nodded and watched carefully as you dashed outside to go and collect the water jug, he didn’t take his eyes off of you, wanting to know that you were okay, even though you were just outside for a couple of moments. You quickly ran back inside and grabbed a cup off of one of the shelves after you had shut the door and poured some of the water in the cup. “Here, drink. You must be thirsty,” You said, handing him the cup. “Thank you,” He said, and took the cup from you, quickly drinking all of the water.

You made quick work of the cuts on his chest, wrapping bandages around him, but putting ointments on them before doing that. You knew that you probably weren’t as good as a healer as Gaius, but this would have to do for now. You glanced up at his face, he was incredibly handsome, and his eyes were beautiful and seemed to stare right into your soul, it was wild. You cupped his cheek, turning his face so that you could get a better look at it, and Leon had to stop himself from leaning into your touch.

Your hands were soft, and you swiped your fingers over the dirt and grime that had collected on his skin, you took your hand away from his face, and dipped your fingers into the water in the jug, and swiped them over the wound on his face, wanting to clean it up before doing anything to help the healing process. As you were cleaning his face, you kept up the conversation. When you had finally finished the cleaning of his face, you cupped his cheek again, turning his head to see if there were any other cuts, there wasn’t, and you had finished working on all of the wounds.

The worst was the one on his chest, it was deep and bleeding profusely. “I’m going to wrap that again to make sure it doesn’t bleed through,” You said, glancing down at the wound. You wrapped it again, running your hands over the wrapping to make sure it was secure, he grabbed at your hand as you were about to pull it away, “Thank you (Y/N), honestly. The likelihood of me bleeding out and dying would have been very high if you hadn’t had found me, so thank you. I owe you my life,” He declared, bringing the hand that he had grabbed closer to his chest so that it sat just above his heart.

“You are welcome, but you do not owe me anything,” You smiled, and patted his chest, pulling your hand away, “I do, and I will repay you one day,” He declared, staring at you. You smiled, “I’ll get you one of my brothers’ shirts, you look around the same size. You obviously can’t go back into battle wearing that ripped up tunic.” You said, walking away from him and opening that cupboard, and pulling out a shirt, and you tossed it to him. He caught it, and slowly began to stand.

You walked over and began to help him put on the shirt. When the shirt had been put on, along with the chainmail and his cape, and he put his sword into its sheath, he slowly lifted his hand and cupped at your face, “I’ll find a way to repay you, (Y/N),” He said, and swiped his thumb underneath your eye. “I’m sure you will, now go fight. Good luck, and I better not be seeing you back here even more injured, or I better not have to attend your funeral,” You said, and smiled up at him, he towered over you.

He nodded and smiled at you. “Thank you again,” And with that, he walked off. You walked over and locked the door and began to clear up all of the supplies you had used on the knight. He had been very kind, and very thankful for all that you had done for him. You shook your head at the thought, you would most likely never see him again, and should probably forget him.

Yet, when it was announced that there would be a funeral for all the knights held, and all citizens were expected to attend, or mourn for them, and Sir Leon was not on the list of knights that had fallen, you smiled, and carried on with your day.

* * *

“Sir Leon!” Gaius called as he saw the knight walking down the corridor, “Gaius?” Leon asked as he turned around to look at the older man, “I heard that you were injured in the battle, come let me look at your wounds,” Gaius said, and started walking to his chambers. Leon followed, wanting to know how good of a job that (Y/N) had done on his wounds. When they arrived at his chambers, Leon took a seat, and quickly rid himself of the tunic that he had been wearing, and Gaius turned to look at the wounds. “They’re wrapped? Who tended to them for you?” Gaius asked, walking over and removing the bandages. Leon blushed at that and looked down, “There was a woman in the lower town, she found me right when I was about to die and brought me in and worked on the wounds.” Leon said, and looked at Gaius. “Hm, what was her name?” Gaius asked, starting to put some herbs together to make an ointment, “(Y/N),” Leon replied, smiling up at the physician. Gaius made a noise of recognition at that.

“You know of her? Yes, I treated her brother and father before they both died, she has a very sad story,” Gaius replied, shaking his head sadly. “Could you tell me about her and her story? I want to go back and talk to her more, she seemed very sweet,” Leon asked, looking up at the man, “Very well, and yes she is very sweet.”

“She comes from a tiny village on the outskirts of Camelot, but the village was destroyed, and nearly everybody was killed, yet (Y/N) and her brother and father escaped and came to Camelot. She doesn’t know who her mother is so don’t ask, nobody knows. All her friends, and her remaining family, like cousins and such, were all killed when the village was attacked. (Y/N) only escaped because her brother carried her out, she was badly injured, I treated her when they first came to Camelot. She had been stabbed through the stomach and was incredibly close to dying when they first arrived. I nursed her back to health, while her brother and father found a small house for the three of them to live in, her brother and father were farmers for their time here, but then Cenred’s men attacked.”

“Arthur was in the lower town when the attack was at its worse, her father and brother had made her stay inside, and she listened for only a little bit. Her father and brother went out, and saw that Arthur was cornered, and they both went after the soldiers cornering them, they both fought well, and many men fell at their hands, but then both of them were sliced right through the belly, and they fell. Arthur couldn’t do anything for them, so he brought them to me, and had to go out and keep fighting, (Y/N) had just left her house when she saw Arthur leaving with both of them draped over him. She followed them to here, and that was when she saw the state that the two of them were in. Arthur had to leave, and when she came in, Arthur was still here, begging me to do whatever I could for them. She saw them, and just broke down, she screamed and cried and asked for me to fix them and save them. Arthur apologized, and promised he would do something for her and then he had to go.”

“They both died four and five minutes after they had been brought in, dying one minute apart, with her father dying first. They could hardly speak but they both told her that they loved her, and then they died. She became a recluse after that, wouldn’t speak to anyone, cried for days, slapped Arthur the next time she saw him, pounded at his chest, and he just let her. It hurt Arthur as well when the two of them had died. Neither were knights, nor had any obligation to die for him, they weren’t even from this area of the kingdom. Arthur wouldn’t speak to anyone for days after the death of the two of them and when (Y/N), Arthur begged his father to do something for her, but Uther said no. Giving priority to her over everyone else who had lost a loved one was simply not fair, and Uther overlooked the fact that Arthur was alive because of the two commoners.”

“So, (Y/N) had to move out of the house that they had as she could no longer afford to manage it, she couldn’t get work because she couldn’t and wouldn’t stop crying, and so she currently lives off of the money that her family made, but I fear that that is running out. She is already so skinny at the moment, because she tries to stretch the money as much as possible, which means she doesn’t eat all that much as it is. She has nothing, and nobody, and is so close to dying that it’s unbelievable how she is still alive. She is supposed to be taking medicine for her stomach injury, yet she won’t take it, Merlin still takes it to her every week, but Merlin quickly found out that she doesn’t take it and is in awful health. She used to be a very good healer, she was the healer for their village, but her whole life fell to pieces when she arrived in Camelot, and she has no way to fix it.” Gaius finished the story, and looked up to Leon, as the wounds had been redressed and he had finished tending to him.

* * *

His mouth was open, and his eyes seemed to have tears in them. “Oh, God. That’s awful, thank you so much Gaius for treating me and for telling me this. I’m going to go see her,” Leon said, and ran out of the chambers they were in. Gaius just shook his head, he could already tell that Leon was totally smitten with this girl, and he just hoped neither of them would end up hurt. 

* * *

When Leon had arrived at her house, he knocked on the door, and waited patiently. When it opened, she was in a different dress than the day that she had treated him, and now he actually got the time to take a proper look at her. His first impression was right, she was absolutely stunning. “Sir Leon, hi,” She said, looking up at him. “Hello, (Y/N), I wanted to repay you for everything you had done for me,” Leon said, “Oh, you haven’t got to do that. You can come in though if you want,” She said, stepping back to let the man in. He smiled, and walked in. “Here, take a seat,” She smiled. He graciously accepted and looked up at her as she dragged a chair over.

“I want to take you out, if you’ll let me,” Leon said, looking her in the eyes. She was shocked to say the least, he was a knight, and you were a peasant, a nobody, you had no money, were in awful health, hardly ate enough to sustain yourself, you were depressed and you thought you were worthless. “I’m a nobody, why would you want to take me out? You’re a knight, I’m a peasant, it isn’t right, it isn’t allowed. I’m saying yes obviously, but why would you want to court someone like me?” She asked, staring at him in the eyes. Leon was shocked, he had thought you might’ve had a low self-worth, but he didn’t think that you just thought you were a nobody.

“You took me in when I was at the lowest possible, Gaius told me about your story and how you could resent knights because of the battle where your family died, but yet you still took in me, a knight, without even hesitating or thinking about it. You were kind, and helped me, and made sure I was okay before sending me off. Not to mention that you’re gorgeous, I’ve never met anybody so damn beautiful in my entire life. You seem so kind, and lovely and wonderful, and I adore that. I don’t know you very well, but I want to know you, I want to give you the world, because you definitely deserve it. Gaius told me that you have a talent for healing, and I think he’s right, and I want to help you get success from that. I want to help you with everything, if you’ll allow me to,” Leon said, and he glanced up into your eyes, and they were shining, but they looked happy.

You looked happy.

“I’ll let you, but promise me one thing, if I ever see Arthur Pendragon again, you allow me to slap him. I know you’re loyal to him and the crown, but I’m loyal to my family and their memory. He’s a good prince, and a good man, but he deserves a massive slap to the face,” You said, and the tears were starting to collect in your eyes. Leon laughed, “I’ll let you hit him, of course, but I will have to take you away before you get thrown in the dungeons,” He laughed, looking at you. You giggled and nodded, “The last time I slapped him, he just let me, and I punched at his chest and just cried, and he let me. So, I know he’s a good man, but I really want to slap him.” You said, Leon smiled and leaned forward, and cupped your face with his hand, and swiped away a tear that had fallen.

* * *

You and Leon had been courting for around 4 months, and then you finally ran into Arthur Pendragon. Leon had been keeping it a secret from his fellow knights, he wasn’t sure how they would react given that you were a peasant, and definitely not of noble blood and that was generally looked down upon. You were walking to the training grounds, because Leon was going to come over and you were going to have dinner together. You weren’t really sure if Arthur was going to be there or not. When you got there, you saw Arthur and nearly screamed, and then Leon noticed that you were there and a smile quickly lit up his face, but then he noticed that you were staring at Arthur, fury present in your eyes. You stormed over, and all of the Knights of the Round Table watched as you stormed over and slapped him.

Arthur knew that was coming the moment he saw you on the training grounds, you hated him, and he knew it. You had every right to hate him and he had just begun to accept it, and he knew that you would probably slap him again and decided that he would let you do it. You had lost every last member of your family because of him, you were left with nothing because of him. Right after you slapped him, the knights, minus Leon, pointed their swords at her. Arthur raised a hand, and they began to lower them, you pounded on his chest and cried, while repeating the words “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you,” over and over again. “I’m sorry, I’m so damn sorry,” He said. Leon decided it was enough, and came over and pulled you off of him, Arthur was about to tell him that it was alright, but then you turned and cried into his chest. Leon wrapped his arms around you and whispered into your ear, “It’s okay, love.” While rubbing circles onto your back.

The knights looked on in confusion, and Merlin had walked over to Arthur, checking him over to see if he was alright. Percival had already made his way over to Gwaine and was wrapping his arm around him to drag Gwaine into his side, because Percival always liked it when Gwaine was near. You pulled your face out of his neck and reached up and dragged Leon down to kiss him. Leon made a sound, quickly kissed you back and pulled away, he turned to the knights and pulled you up against him as you still cried. “I’m sorry, Arthur,” Leon said, “I’m not,” You mumbled into Leon’s chest, but the rest of the knights heard it and a majority of them let out a little laugh. “It’s alright Leon, and it’s okay (Y/N) if you’re not sorry, I understand.” Arthur said, “But what I don’t understand, is that you’re dating her?” Arthur asked, and looked at Leon. “Yes, sire.” Leon said, and looked the prince in the eyes.

“I’m sorry, but can someone please explain what’s going on here? And since when does Leon get laid?” Gwaine asked, from his spot tucked into Percival’s side. Percival huffed at him, “Arthur Pendragon is the reason my brother and father are dead, Leon and I have been dating for four months, and he’s gotten laid since our first month of dating,” You said, looking Gwaine dead in the eyes. He chuckled, “I like her, she’s got spunk.” Gwaine said and turned his head and pressed a kiss to Percival’s arm, “(Y/N), you know I’m incredibly sorry for what happened to your brother and father. I never wanted anybody to lay down their lives for mine,” Arthur said, “Yet, so many people have.” You said and pulled yourself out of Leon’s grip and walked off. Leon hated this, having to pick between the man he was dedicated to as a knight, and the woman he loved was incredibly hard. Arthur saw his internal struggle, “Go Leon, but you better meet me in my chambers when the sun sets, I expect to have a word with you over this,” He said, and raised an eyebrow at him. Leon nodded, bowed, and then chased after you.

When he had got to your house, you were sitting on your bed and crying. Leon winced, “Love, come here,” He said, and you slowly got up and walked over and hugged him. You untucked yourself from his side and looked up at him. “I don’t want to make dinner tonight,” You said, and leaned up and kissed him. You slowly kissed down his neck and began to remove his chainmail and his shirt. You kissed down his chest and looked up at him underneath your eyelashes and smiled. “You’re so fucking perfect,” He said, and picked you up and you wrapped yourself around him, giggling.

When he pulled out of you, and laid down beside you, and pulled you on top of him, he was breathing heavily, but had a massive smile on his face. “I’m in love with you,” He admitted, “Oh, thank fuck because I’m also in love with you and I didn’t want to be the only one in this relationship that felt like that, that would’ve caused me too much anxiety,” You rambled, and he laughed out loud, and pulled you down for a kiss.


End file.
